Doppler Soundlab, Singapore – Asia’s first Amphion Dolby Atmos Studio
From London to Mumbai to Singapore, Anup Pereira brings both international perspectives and immense talent in sound-design
Singapore, the “Lion City”, has long been known as a major international commercial, cosmopolitan, and cultural hub, and we’re very proud to see our first Asia-Pacific immersive system find a home there. This tiny island-state, often referred to as the “Switzerland of Southeast Asia”, is the base for the sound-design, mixing, mastering, and post-production work of Anup Pereira – an Amphion user of almost five years. Anup talked to us about his next-level usage of Amphion – immersive audio environments – at his Doppler Soundlab, and the “phenomenal clarity, imaging, transient response and phase coherence” they deliver for him. Having worked in three quite distinct global regions, his insights into “systems”, be they workflow, software, hardware, or genres are both refined and valuable. We curated some of his responses to a range of questions we posed to him about the industry, immersive audio, and Amphion…
In His Own Voice: Anup Pereira, Singapore
My career in the audio industry began as a sound designer for London-based sample library designers ‘Prime Loops’ in 2008. I was really fascinated by audio synthesis and programming which led me to eventually craft sounds for Native Instruments, Ableton Live and Apple Logic Pro. After a few years of designing sound libraries, I shifted from London to Singapore to collaborate with upcoming game developers to produce immersive soundscapes while simultaneously composing music for commercials as well as working with the local music talents. While in Singapore, I was approached for mixing film scores / music in India. I spent the next few years mixing orchestral scores and mastering music for several Indian films while also setting up a 5.1 surround mix room in Mumbai which catered to Bollywood films. In 2017, I moved back to Singapore and subsequently started Doppler Soundlab.
One of my initial projects was a Sci-Fi VR series, which allowed me to explore the realm of immersive and spatial audio. Eventually, I ventured into the world of audio post production for Film and TV, working with documentaries, indie films, television series and audiobooks. As I got more involved with audio post for film, I saw this as the perfect moment for me to expand into Dolby Atmos while we were setting up our new studio. With Apple’s latest announcement, I am thrilled to further explore immersive and spatial audio for music as well.
Amphion meets Doppler Soundlab
My journey with Amphion began in early 2017, when I started using the Two18’s and Amp500 in my studio in Mumbai for stereo mixing and mastering. When I moved back to Singapore, I had the Two18’s in my main studio and I picked up an additional pair of One18’s and Amp100 for my home studio. This was immensely helpful to me during the pandemic since I could undeniably rely on the translation of the speakers from home even in an untreated space. For the new studio, we decided to go with an end-to-end Amphion Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 system right from the speakers to the amps! This includes 2 x Two18’s, 1 x One18, 4 x One15’s, 4 x One12’s and 1 x Flexbase25. For the amps, we are using the Amp500, Amp100, FlexAmp1200 and the multi-channel Amp400.8. These are connected to an Avid Matrix Studio with SPQ being used for room calibration. Dolby Singapore helped me fine-tune and calibrate the room to their specifications.
From sound design to post-production, and all the genres in-between …
I started my career as a sound designer which then led me to mixing and mastering music and then eventually to audio post production which includes dialogue editing, sound design and re-recording mixing. For music, I mostly work with pop and orchestral scores, while in my own productions I work with electronic music. For film, our work spans across a diverse range of genres.
Workflow Approach: Do you have a standard way for working with clients? Custom-approach?
When I started mixing and mastering music, I was already operating remotely with various productions across multiple countries and this is simpler to do so with music. But now with the way the world is changing and evolving, this workflow is becoming a norm. We are currently working on complete audio-post for film productions remotely. All you need is great communication and an open mind!
How Amphion makes a clear difference in the result …
When I am not questioning translation, it speeds up my workflow tremendously and it’s this distinct attribute that has impressed me since the first time I tried them out – which speaks volumes about Amphion’s calibre.
Immersive Audio + Amphion: Your impressions. How has the experience/result been?
We are just getting started with our first Dolby Atmos mix for a sci-fi feature film called ‘One 2 Zero’, made in South Korea by director Jonathan Hardy. I am absolutely certain we can rely on Amphion’s clarity in separation of sounds across the channels to evoke an immensely immersive experience. We are also looking forward to taking our future VR projects into Atmos and down-mixing it into binaural or multichannel ambisonics. We hope to take our immersive productions to the next level with the phenomenal clarity, imaging, transient response and phase coherence that Amphion offers.
Special message from Amphion: Our Singapore Distributor, Sinamex, has been very supportive of Anup and Doppler Soundlab. Thank you for getting behind our brand and Anup in our immersive audio market-entry.
For more information about Doppler Studio
For more images of Doppler Studio
For more information about Amphion’s Singapore Distributor Sinamex
For more information about Beautifully Immersive
Photo Credits: Farah Pereira